1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains generally to computer systems. In particular, it pertains to network-based forms on computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer users are frequently asked to fill in information on a web page that has been provided over the Internet from a server, and then submit the completed information back over the Internet to the server. In normal operation, when a web page submits its data to a web server in this manner for processing, the data must all be present on one ‘form’ on the web page. The page may have multiple forms, but only one can be submitted to the server at a time for processing. This requires server-based applications to ‘maintain state’, or remember what has been submitted, between submissions, which can be very complex. To avoid the necessity of maintaining state, the creator of a web application may place all data fields that are related to a particular task within the same form so that when the form is submitted, the server has access to all of the modified data at the same time.
Unfortunately, there are often fields that do not require modification, or that should only be modified by advanced users. To steer end-users around these fields, web page designers often place all fields on the form but specify which fields are required and which are optional. This limitation forces the creation of pages that are visually complex and often confusing. The alternative is to place the seldom-accessed fields on a second page that is accessed from the first page only when needed. But because standard web browser and server architectures do not allow multiple forms to be submitted at the same time, the form associated with this second page must be submitted to the server separately from the form associated with the first page, which again requires the server to maintain state by keeping track of multiple forms being submitted by a single user at different times.